Page proofs for JADE-- all 374 pages (with The Little Mermaid for scale...)

Hey all,

Thought I'd do a quick post to tell you that the review copies of The Jade Notebook will be out in a few weeks-- can't wait! In the meantime, I'm going over page proofs. This stage is so much fun-- the book finally feels like a real thing, with the final layout and font and inside design and everything.

As I've been going over it, I'm realizing how happy I am it has a mid-February release date. That's precisely the time of year when I get really, really, really sick of winter... and I start craving beaches and tropical waters with every freezing-cold cell of my body. I think it'll be the perfect time-- the miserable almost-end of winter-- to be transported to a little Mexican coastal town.

Here's the epithet (is that what it's called and how you spell it? i think so...) It has to do with one of the themes of the book-- learning to embrace the delicious mess of life. That's something I've often struggled with. Right now, especially, I'm in the midst of lots of chaos-- living in a rental house while our house is being majorly renovated... my stuff mostly in boxes in storage, not knowing where anything is...now just waiting for that dancing star to be born...

You'll have to tilt your head to see the first page of the first chapter (click the image to make it bigger.) Or, you could go to The Jade Notebook page that I recently added to my website for an excerpt. (And it's available for pre-order now for e-reader and hardcover: indiebound or amazon or Barnes and Noble.)

So, I just got back from an author panel with Amy Kathleen Ryan (author of Glow). Fascinating to hear about her journey, process, routines... and it came out that we both have backgrounds in anthropology. Here we are at the Northern Colorado Writers studio...

Okay, must drink tea and go to bed now...

Goodnight!
Laura